Manchester airport to abandon 'naked' security scanners

An image from the backscatter security scanner, which Manchester airport will cease using after a three-year trial after the European Commission failed to give approval. Photograph: Brian Branch-Price/AP

Manchester airport is abandoning the use of controversial security scanners that produce "naked" images after failing to get approval from the European Commission.

The backscatter body scanners, Doctor Who Tardis-like blue boxes between which passengers must stand to produce a ghostly image of the body's naked outline, will cease to be used from the end of October. The decision was made because the commission has failed to give permission in time for an existing three-year trial to be made permanent.

The scanners have proved controversial amid claims they are an invasion of passengers' privacy. There have also been questions over safety, but a panel of independent European health experts unanimously found in March this year that there was "no evidence" they posed health risks.

The body scanners use a low dose X-ray to scan through clothing, producing naked images of passengers to determine whether they are carrying any concealed items. The Health Protection Agency had previously assessed the scanners and decided they posed a negligible risk to health. The X-ray dose was assessed as being equivalent to that received in less than two minutes of flying in an aircraft at cruising altitude.

Manchester airport said only 23 of the millions of passengers who have travelled through its security in the past three years have refused to use the scanners. Some of the refusals were on health grounds, while others were for cultural reasons.

Andrew Harrison, the chief operating officer at Manchester Airport Group, said they are baffled by the decision "because health experts say they are safe". He said the overwhelming majority of their passengers and security staff prefer body scanners to frisking. "And it's frustrating that Brussels has allowed this successful trial to end."

Manchester was the only airport in Europe to use the scanners, which were introduced three years ago. The airport had been anticipating that the technology would be approved for permanent use after the study found they posed no additional risk to people's health.

However, they say the lack of a decision from Brussels means they have no choice other than to remove the scanners.

They will be replaced by machines using radio-wave technology, similar to safety systems in the United States that identify people or objects that have fallen on to subway tracks and produce a cartoon-like image of the passenger's body, showing any suspicious items. Five new scanners will be introduced at Manchester airport for a three-month trial. The European Commission has not yet commented.